Today’s post is a guest post from Lauren Bailey. Lauren takes a look at some of the free online writing courses available via online open courseware for writers.

Online higher education was a big step for the academic world. Making college education more accessible to individuals in “non-traditional” situations, online learning pays tribute to the concept that education and opportunity should be available to any individual regardless of circumstance. As the online trend continues to change and expand, online avenues for learning are changing and expanding as well. In recent years, many major universities and colleges throughout the country have opened up past courses to the World Wide Web. Offering open courseware classes in a variety of topics, any individual with a reliable internet connection can access some of the best taught classes in higher education. These four courses from Stanford, MIT, Utah State, and the University of Massachusetts offer writers thorough and careful practice in their craft.

Writing and Reading Short Stories

Taught originally in 2006, this MIT course offers insight into the craft and crafting of the short story. Whether your focus is fiction, nonfiction, or otherwise, this course has many things to offer any writer looking to improve their craft and expand their understanding of writing as a whole. By examining great short stories, listening to writers speak about writing, performing writing exercises, and conducting writing workshops on original pieces, students will learn a great deal about their own writing and the writing process in general. This MIT course provides lecture notes for 23 of the original course’s class periods and offers the suggested reading material, so that individuals can follow along the course as if they are in it themselves.

Introduction to Writing: Academic Prose

Structured after Utah State University’s introductory English course, this free course offers one of the best overviews of a colligate English course a writer can find online. The course examines critical thinking, visual literacy, cultural myths, family narratives, debate vs. dialogue, and much more all in the first week of the class. With 16 weeks of material, this course is extremely thorough in educating a writer on the basics of reading, analyzing, and writing. Examining literature from all cultural backgrounds and historical time periods, this course is extremely valuable in providing students with an overview of literature throughout history. Students will learn about crafting theses, constructing strong titles, and conducting research.

Critical Reading and Writing

One of the most central aspects of writing involves reading critically. This University of Massachusetts Boston online course, offers guidance in learning to read and write critically. While this is definitely a beginner’s course in critical thinking, it can be very useful overview for the seasoned writer or an extremely beneficial lesson for the newbie writer. This course is not specific to literature or writing, approaching critical reading and writing at a more general angle. Regardless, critical reading and writing is the first step towards stronger fictional writing and prose.

Ten Weeks, Ten Pieces: Getting Started in Creative Writing

While this online course isn’t a free one, I had to include it on the list. Stanford University’s Ten Weeks, Ten Pieces: Getting Started in Creative Writing offers a wonderful introduction to writing and productivity. Based on the concept that just sitting down to write is an accomplishment, a student ends the course with a considerable amount of writing samples. One of the best lessons a writer can learn is simply to do it—sit down and start writing. In this course, students will complete manuscripts of short fiction, short memoir, and poetry and will leave with a new sense of direction and purpose with the writing.

This guest post was contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99@gmail.com.

I’ll be writing more about free online courses for writers in the near future. Consider subscribing if you don’t want to miss out.

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If, like me, you’re a shy writer, attending a writers’ conference might fill you with dread, but there really is a lot of merit to pulling yourself out of your writer’s den, putting on something other than sweats or pajamas and attending your nearest writers’ conference  to network with agents, publishers and other writers.

Writers’ conferences are a great opportunity to make connections, get feedback and (daunting as it may sound) pitch your work to agents and publishers face to face. If the idea of even attending a conference alone is overwhelming, consider going with a writing friend, or, if you have a strong online writing network, start asking if anyone from any of your online writing communities is attending a particular conference and make a commitment to meet up with the human being behind the avatar/profile/writing samples.

Still not convinced? At least take a look at some conferences coming up in the 2012 season. Any of them near you? Or somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit? Maybe that’s your writing destiny trying to tell you something.

DFW Writers Conference, May 19-20, Dallas, Texas

Clarksville Writers Conference, June 7-8, Clarksville, Tennessee

Books-in-Progress Conference, June 8-9, Lexington, Kentucky

Crested Butte Writers Conference, June 22-24, Crested Butte, Colorado

Jackson Hole Writers Conference, June 28-30, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Fernie Writers Conference, July 15 – 21, Fernie, British Columbia

Midwest Writers Workshop, July 26-28, Muncie, Indiana

Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, July 26-28, Fort Bragg, California

Cape Cod Writers Center Conference, August 5 – 10, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Chicago Writers Conference, Sept. 13-14, Chicago, Ilinois

Writer’s Digest WEST Conference, Oct. 19-21, Los Angeles, California

If you’re considering your first conference (or even if it’s your second, third or tenth), a great resource to help you get the most out of a writers’ conference is Writer’s Conference Guide: Getting The Most of Your Time and Money.

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Thanks to everyone who entered the recent contest here at Change The World With Words to win The 31 Day Guide to Making Money as a Freelance W.R.I.T.E.R.,  by Shelley Hitz. The contest was won by Janet Bettag. Congratulations Janet. Enjoy your new ebook.

If you didn’t win, don’t despair. There will be more contests, giveaways and freebies in the future. Consider subscribing if you don’t want to miss them and if you still really want the ebook you can buy it here:

The 31 Day Guide to Making Money as a Freelance W.R.I.T.E.R.

Shelley has also written a few short reports and ebooks you can download for free right now at the following links:

Self Publishing Books 101

Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: YouTube Strategies for Authors

Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Guest Blogging for Success

I recently had an email from a new writer asking which writing books (“real, not ebooks”, she specified) I would recommend. I love both real books and ebooks, and while I find my Kindle really useful (especially when I’m on one of my long-term travel adventures), I understand that many people still want to read real books, not ebooks.

I’ve compiled a reading list of (real) books that readers may find interesting, and if you haven’t yet checked out the Change The World With Words online book store, please take a look. It’s full of books about writing, publishing and world-changing, plus it’s powered by Amazon and you can shop from it using your regular Amazon account. There’s no obligation to buy. Browsers are always welcome. Enter the book store here.

Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest, and check back for more book and ebook giveaways in the future.

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All the best writers I know are lifelong learners, thirsty for knowledge and constantly updating their writing skills. They’re also constantly expanding and consolidating their skill sets: adding new skills that are related to, and complementary to, their writing. Here are a few skills that writers need in their daily tasks, and can often use to expand their business and find new freelance opportunities.

Editing

We all need to be able to edit our own writing, more so these days than ever. Editors of print media and websites are too busy to take on sloppily written copy, and blogging, social media and online platforms mean we’re often posting our work direct to the internet without the advantage of someone else looking over it first.

Meanwhile publishers become ever more picky, and are quickly put off by a badly edited manuscript or excerpt, and the rise of self publishing means many authors need to get really good at self editing, or hire an editor. Check out these Thirty Questions To Ask Yourself While Editing Your Book, and if you need to improve self editing skills, consider investing in Get Your Writing Fighting Fit: Editing Secrets Revealed by Audrey Owen.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a useful skill for any writer who writes online, whether for other people or to build her own online platform. Love it or hate it, it’s a useful skill to add to the package you offer clients and editors. Get started with these Five SEO Tips for Writers.

Self Publishing

Most of us still think of books when we think of self publishing, though you could argue that with our own blogs and websites, and many of us writing short ebooks and reports, we’ll all be self-publishing in one form or another soon.

If you’re a new or potential self publisher check out our giant resource post, Fifty Self Publishing Resources, and help yourself to a copy of the free ebook, Self Publishing Books 101.

Marketing

Being able to market your own writing to editors, publishers, agents and other clients is an essential skill. If you’re unsure about marketing check out Marketing Tips For Writers (and don’t forget to scroll down and download the free report mentioned at the bottom of the article).

If you already have good marketing skills you could consider adding another income stream to your freelance writing business by marketing other people’s products. Don’t know much about affiliate marketing? Take a look at this post about affiliate marketing aimed specifically at writers.

Photography

I’m still working on developing this skill myself and loving stretching my creativity in a whole new direction. Two great resources I’ve found:

• The Photographer’s Life

A website and free online newsletter packed full of advice, tips, and examples of great photography, to help you improve as a photographer and learn how to edit and sell your photos. They also offer regular photography contests and photography workshops all over the world. Definitely worth signing up for, even if you’re just starting out.

• RedGage

A site where you can share your photos, network with other new, aspiring and more experienced photographers and even make some money from posting your photos. I particularly like the friendly community here and the fact that RedGage (unlike some photo sharing sites) protects your photos from being easily stolen by disabling the ‘right click’ function. You can sign up here for a (free) account.

If you’ve not yet checked out the Change The World With Words online book store, please take a look. It’s full of books about writing, publishing and world-changing, plus it’s powered by Amazon and you can shop from it using your regular Amazon account. There’s no obligation to buy.  Browsers are always welcome. Enter the book store here.

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Today’s post is a guest post by Greg Walker. Greg reminds us of the importance of proof reading carefully, and makes us all feel better about ourselves by pointing our a few proof reading errors that are probably even worse than some of the ones we’ve made ourselves.

Think Proofreading Isn’t Important? Think Again…

By Greg Walker

Proofreading. The word alone is enough to bore the socks off most writers. After going through the whole creative process and editing your work down to a work of art bordering on the sublime, you’re presented with the wearisome process of taking a magnifying glass to your sentences and going on a hunt for misplaced commas.

And yet… misplaced commas can be very costly indeed. About as costly as futile full stops, pointless paragraph breaks, and using grandiose-sounding words in completely the wrong places (which can be spectacularly embarrassing—I speak from experience).

They are costly because mistakes get noticed, especially by eagle-eyed clients who are only too happy to point out each tiny error you make (you know the sort). That might lead to nothing more than a bruised ego but, egos aside, the cumulative effect of too many trivial errors can be devastating.

No matter how small the mistake, if the client decides that they would not have made the same error then they inevitably begin to question why they are paying someone to write for them in the first place. But if you had any doubt about the seriousness of proofreading, here are some of my all-time favorite mistakes where even the most basic of final checks would have been enough to prevent monumental embarrassment.

1. It’s Welsh, But It Ain’t Right

We’ll start with the best of the lot. This mistake occurred in Wales a few years ago, where road signs are written in both English and Welsh, meaning translations are a frequent requirement.

After writing out the content of one particular sign, an anonymous official then sent it off to be translated. The email was returned soon after containing a sentence in Welsh. Job done.

It was only when the sign was put up in full public view that the full extent of the mistake became apparent.

The sign was split into two halves. The top half read: ‘No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only’. And below it, the Welsh translation. It looked all well and good… unless you could read Welsh. For although the translation was certainly Welsh, it was not exactly a faithful translation of the English above it.

Instead, it read: “Am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

It has since become the most famous auto-reply in the world. Or in Wales, at least.

2. Bad Advice from the King James Bible

The Bible. A source of inspiration and guidance to millions of people across the world. So here more than in any other book you’d think that careful proofreading was essential.

Unfortunately, the 1631 version of The King James Bible ended up providing some particularly bad advice to the faithful.

Most of it was fine, but if you happened to read Exodus 20:14, better known as the Seventh Commandment, you may have found the advice slightly conflicting with what you had been taught in church:

“Thou shalt commit adultery.”

The printers received a fine of £300 for their error, and the version, which became known as the ‘Sinners Bible’, was soon withdrawn. Eleven copies apparently still exist after nearly 400 years to remind us all of the potential perils of proofreading failure.

3. Red Faces on the Blue Side of Manchester

I’ve got a friend who supports Manchester City, now one of the biggest soccer teams in England. They have a fierce rivalry with Manchester United, who have seen far more success over recent years. So when Manchester City made it to the FA Cup Final in 2011, it was their moment to shine.

However, the event very nearly proved disastrous when some anonymous worker in the flag factory made a very bad mistake indeed.

It is customary on such occasions for the Football Association to print out tens of thousands of flags to give away to supporters on the big day. But just days before the event, the flags were delivered only to reveal that they all bore the name ‘Manchester United’.

Luckily they got changed in time, but heads had to roll over that blunder.

4. ‘Embarrassing’ Parker Pens Mistake

Translation mistakes make for some of the funniest proofreading blunders, and sometimes you really do have to wonder how such obvious mistakes were never caught out.

Parker Pens is one of those firms which is clearly not paying its proofreaders enough money, as was revealed so spectacularly when it decided to boldly enter the Mexican market.

The mistake arose due to one of the most notorious ‘false friends’ in English and Spanish translation. False friends are words which sound the same but mean very different things. The verb ‘to embarrass’ sounds a lot like ‘embarazar’… but ‘embarazar’ means ‘to become pregnant’.

So the company certainly made an impression, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons, when it made the surprising declaration that its pens ‘won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’.

Anyone who knows Spanish would have easily spotted the error, so it’s a wonder that this one managed to get through the net. Or maybe it was all just some elaborate marketing ploy to make headlines?

Always Proofread

No one is foolproof. Writers will always make mistakes, and even careful proofreading is sometimes not enough to prevent errors from getting through. In fact, I’m almost certain someone will pick up on at least one mistake I’ve made in this article, even though I’ve proofed it twice.

Some writers hire professional proofreaders to check over their work before handing it in. Personally, I don’t do this. But I have built up my own little system to help me catch the real humdingers.

This involves writing and editing as early as possible, and then putting the work aside for a few days before proofreading it just before handing it in. I also have a list of the most common mistakes I make (‘their’ and ‘there’ seem to get mixed up on an embarrassingly frequent basis), and I do a quick check for these mistakes on every piece of work I deliver.

This catches most of the mistakes I make, and I’m certain that a few of my clients would not still be clients if I had regularly missed these errors.

So always proofread. It’s not fun, and there is no way to make it something that you look forward to doing. But it can prevent you making minor or major mistakes that can not only prove to be very embarrassing, but can also cost you clients.

Proofreading effectively is just one way to improve your writing and enjoy more success as a freelancer. For more information and tips on taking your writing even further and winning better clients, head to http://prowebwriting.com where Greg Walker has written a free ebook providing details of a few ways to make money from your writing.
Image courtesy of Fail Blog.

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This week I’m pleased to announce I have a great writing ebook to give away. First of all, I’d like to say a big thank you to Shelley Hitz, the self publishing coach for providing both the giveaway copy and an extra copy for me to review.

The ebook is The 31 Day Guide to Making Money as a Freelance W.R.I.T.E.R., one of four specific work from home reports that Shelley offers. If you already know you want it, scroll down and enter the contest. If you want to hear a bit more about it, read on.

Quick Review of The 31 Day Guide to Making Money as a Freelance W.R.I.T.E.R.

I’m already making money as a freelance writer, and didn’t know if I was really the right target audience for this ebook. Having read it I can honestly say that it both reminded me of a few things I should be doing but don’t, and inspired me to start doing a few things I’ve never done before.

For newbies, this is a useful start-up guide. For more experienced writers, it’s a useful handbook to help keep you on track with your writing career.

There’s a reason the word “writer” in this book’s title is written as W.R.I.T.E.R.  Shelley breaks her advice down into six useful quick reference sections that fall under the following categories:

Weighing your options.

Receiving payment.

Identifying your clients

Taking inventory of needs.

Executing the work order.

Reaching your potential.

The different sections contain useful advice on:

• Building your writing portfolio.
• Finding clients and working out exactly what clients need from you, the writer.
• Making choices about what type of content to focus on, and how to choose a niche topic to specialise in.
• How to price your services and choose a payment structure.
• Creating a website that showcases your services.
• Blogging to attract clients.
• How best to ask for repeat business and referrals.

This guide usually sells for $20 but you have a chance to pick one up for free.  There are two ways to enter the contest and you can enter more than once. Here’s how:

Simply leave a comment below and you’ll be automatically entered into the draw to win your own copy of the ebook. Make sure you fill in the ‘email’ field when leaving your comment with your primary email address so I can contact you if you win (I promise I won’t contact you for any other reason, unless you ask me too!)

Tweet about this contest on Twitter using my Twitter handle (@writeandchange) so I can see who tweeted. (If you use the ‘Tweet This’ button at the top of this post, it will automatically generate a tweet that includes my Twitter handle).  If you win I’ll send you a message via Twitter.

You can only leave one comment but you can tweet once a day (no more than that please – we don’t want to bore people!) until the contest closes on 29^th April. Each tweet will give you an extra entry into the contest.

The contest runs until midnight on April 29th 2012. The winner will be randomly selected from all comments and tweets posted by that date. The winner will be notified by email or via Twitter, and asked to confirm the email address that the ebook should be sent to. Good luck all and get tweeting

Update: This contest has now closed. The winner has been notified and will be announced soon. Thanks to all who entered.

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Today I’m excited to be able to offer all my readers a new free ebook, Self Publishing Books 101, from the self publishing coach, Shelley Hitz. It really is free. No strings attached. No sign up required. This free PDF ebook is available for instant download today.

Self publishing your own books has never been easier, cheaper, or more popular than it is right now. With print on demand technology, one-stop self publishing companies like CreateSpace and Lulu, and a huge range of self publishing resources available all over the web.

However, as many authors find out, there are still a lot of complications and potential pitfalls to self publishing. Shelley has been publishing books since 2008 and wanted to share what she’s learned through this ebook.

Shelley includes:

• A comparison of the different types of publishing, and the pros and cons of each.

• An analysis of the costs involved in self publishing, including the details of how she self published her first book with no upfront costs at all (just a whole lot of time and effort).

• Links to download free book templates.

• Self publishing software options.

• Book formatting and design tips.

• How to choose the right self publishing company.

• What you need to know about copyrighting your book.

To instantly download the free PDF version of the book, click the link below.

Self Publishing Books 101

Please go ahead and share/forward this post. For now, this offer is free to everyone, so feel free to spread the word.

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Depending on what sort of writer you are, you may think that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is:

A)    Earth shatteringly important, or

B)    Not applicable to you at all.

Either way, you’re probably wrong.

If you’re a specialist SEO writer maybe you consider building SEO skills and knowledge the most important part of your job, and maybe it is. But none of us write for search engines alone. Search engines, ultimately, are only a tool to bring human users to a particular site or page, and human beings appreciate good, clear, informative writing. For most writers, good writing skills are at least as important as good SEO skills.

If you only ever write for print publications, or are a traditionally published author, you may think SEO skills aren’t applicable to you. If you’re managing to market your books to publishers, or get editors to buy your articles, without any online presence at all, maybe you’re right. But most writers and authors have something that could benefit from being optimized: an author website, a blog, an Amazon page.

For most of us, a basic knowledge of SEO is useful, if not vital, and as someone who knew nothing about it a couple of short years ago, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned:

Be prepared to put some time (but not too much) into learning about SEO techniques.

There’s a lot to learn, and a lot of good resources. Be prepared to spend a bit of time on it, BUT don’t get carried away. Unless you’re planning on becoming a specialist SEO writer, you probably only need to know the basics.

A basic knowledge will allow you to:

• Bring appropriate traffic to your blog posts and online articles.
• Ensure your work is visible online to editors looking for a sample.
• Understand what editors and webmasters require from you when they tell you to target a certain keyword or phrase.
• Not be too precious when online editors change your title or tweak your article (often done purely for SEO purposes).

Write for humans as well as search engines.

Here’s the thing about SEO. It’s always on the move. The major search engines change their algorithms all the time (as any online writer who lived through the gruesome Google Panda update can testify) so “knowing” SEO is in itself an ongoing process.  None of us mere mortals know exactly what algorithm changes are coming up next to prevent us writers “tricking’ the search engines.

But here’s the other thing. The search engines may change their algorithms, but their basic objective remains the same:  to take human searchers to the best and most appropriate information on the web, given what they type into the search engine. Write great copy, that human beings can read and digest easily, that solves their problems and answers their questions – and you may be surprised at the long-term results, regardless of how many (or few) SEO techniques you use.

A big part of how search engines judge a page is what’s referred to as off-page SEO, or what humans do with your information. Do they spend a long time reading it? Interact with it? Favorite or bookmark it? Share it on social media? Link to it from their own sites and articles?

Search engines are becoming more intuitive. Eventually they will have a set of algorithms that almost enable them to think like a human. The better your copy works for humans, the better it will work for the search engines, and if the search engines continue to update with human satisfaction as their main objective, online copy written with human satisfaction as its main objective will continue to rise up the ranks.

Don’t keyword stuff.

Using a keyword over and over again in a way that is unnatural or interferes with the sense of the article is really annoying. You don’t need to use a keyword any more than a few times and it should sound completely natural (tightly focussed, relevant articles practically SEO themselves).

If you want to keep repeating a keyword in a natural, readable fashion consider a FAQ or Q&A style article, where you ask (and answer) a list of questions, all of which have the keyword included. Eg:

What is SEO?

Do I really need to know SEO as an article writer?

What are the best SEO resources on the web?

You get the idea.

Use free tools

You don’t need to pay for basic keyword tools that will enable you to effectively SEO your writing. I like the Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool for researching keywords. It’s more than adequate for most writers needs.

If you run your own blog you can also install free SEO plug-ins. I use WordPress blogging software and the All-In-One SEO plug-in, which is completely free and perfectly effective.

A warning about URLS

A very basic article on SEO techniques will advise you to (at the very least) identify your keyword/phrase and include it in your title, opening paragraph, tags and URL. When writing for you own site or blog, make sure you have your settings organised so your post title becomes part of your URL (a lot of blogging software doesn’t do this automatically), or else manually create your URLs.

When I started this site two years ago it took me a while to realize that all my posts included the main URL of my site followed by a question mark and a lot of random symbols. Not good for SEO. I reset my blog to use the title of the post as part of the URL, and found that I had managed to break all incoming links to those posts. (I only noticed when posts that had previously shown several tweets suddenly reverted to ‘0 tweets’). Learn from my mistake and get it right from the start if you can.

Basic SEO skills are a useful addition to your writing skill set. I’ll be discussing more useful skills you can develop to complement your writing in an upcoming post. If you don’t want to miss it, be sure to come back or subscribe.

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• Ten Reasons Writers and Authors Should Spend Time on Twitter

There are still writers and authors around who don’t know the first thing about Twitter, and some who feel guilty for ‘wasting’ way too much time on it. For both groups, here are my top ten reasons for wasting spending just a little time on Twitter every day.

You can follow your favorite writers and bloggers.

You’ll find out what they’re writing, what events they’re attending, where they’re speaking, when they have a new book coming out and when they’re teaching a new workshop. You can see links to their new content and hear about any contests or giveaways they’re organising, free days for their books on Amazon, or free chapters/promotional ebooks they’re giving away.

You’ll feel connected to the very best in your industry.

You can follow the really big thought leaders in your area of expertise, famous authors, or the most popular bloggers. You can see what they’re tweeting about, and through their links what they’re blogging about or writing about elsewhere on the web. Following industry experts on Twitter can be one of many strategies you can use to become an expert yourself.

You’ll learn something new every day.

If you follow the experts who are on the cutting edge of the writing or publishing industry you’ll always be in the loop about new developments. But follow the little people too. Quirky, new or little known writers or bloggers can come up with razor sharp insights or post a link to a fascinating article any time.

You can indulge in no-pressure networking.

It’s easy to join in a conversation on Twitter. Much easier than joining a real life conversation at a conference or networking event. Say something note-worthy or intelligently controversial and people will remember you. If you ever need to network with those people again it might make things easier. Saying hi to a writer or author you admire or paying them a quick compliment is easy on Twitter.

You can easily get to know other writers, publishers, editors or agents.

I’m not suggesting you approach publishers, editors or agents via Twitter to pester them to look at your work, but it’s fine to follow them and keep an eye on their Twitter streams. They might tweet when they’re looking for new writers, or link to informative articles and blog posts about what sort of material they need right now.

You can promote your writing.

Twitter is a great place to share links to your blog, writer’s website, books, ebooks, workshops, interviews or guest posts you’ve done, articles you’ve written, reviews of your books, contests and giveaways, profiles on other social media and pretty much anything else. Just use a clear heading so people know what the link will lead to. No-one wants to click on a link that takes them to misleading or spammy content.

You can find help, and get answers.

Put a question out on Twitter (once you have enough followers) and people will weigh in with their opinions. Or you can @ message a specific person a question. It’s OK to politely ask a fellow writer who her agent is, or what writing related book he recommends, or who produced his book trailer/cover art/website content.

You can find potential partners, collaborators or guest posters.

Last national novel writing month I wanted to interview participating authors. I wrote a blog post publicising this fact and then put a tweet out with the hash tag #NaNoWriMo. I got several responses and turned them into a series of NaNo interviews.

You can find new opportunities.

The inverse of the above point. I’ve seen people tweet when they’re looking for new writers, interviewees, guest posts, speakers at local events, contributors to an ebook, workshop participants, and critique partners. You may not even know you want to get involved with something until you see a tweet about it.

You’ll learn to write concisely. 

Tweets are only 140 characters long, so you have to write concisely and get creative. It’s a good test when promoting a book, short story or article. If you can’t sum it up in 140 characters, maybe it’s just not focussed enough.

If you’re brand new to Twitter you might want to check out my previous post Twenty Twitter Tips for Writers. If you’re really looking to make the most of Twitter as a tool for building an author platform and selling your books you might want to invest in the ebook Twitter 101 for Authors.

And you can of course always follow me on Twitter. I love connecting with fellow writers over there.

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Entering creative writing contests can be a great way to motivate and inspire yourself, and can be surprisingly lucrative for those lucky (and talented) enough to win. These three contests all offer substantial prize money and the deadlines are coming up soon, so why not use them as motivation to produce (or finish) that perfect story, poem or essay.

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest

This contest is open to original short stories, essays or other works of prose. There’s an entry fee of $15, but a total of $5,550 of prize money is on the table, broken down as follows:

First prize is $3,000, second prize, $1,000, third prize: $400, and fourth prize: $250. There are also six Highly Commended Awards ($150 each). The top 10 entries are published on the Winning Writers website.

Works of up to 5,000 words are eligible, and there are no restrictions on style or theme. You may submit the same work simultaneously to this contest and to others, and even works that have been published or won prizes elsewhere are eligible as long as you still own the online publication rights.

The deadline is March 31, 2012. Get all the details here.

Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest

This contest is open to writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The entry fee of $20 may seem a bit steep but it includes a year’s subscription to Ploughshares Magazine, and the fee reflects the $1000 prize money available in each category.

For the purposes of this contest an “emerging writer” is someone who has not yet published a book, (including eBooks, and self-published books). Contestants can submit fiction or nonfiction under 5,000 words, or 3 to 5 poems. Writers are allowed to submit only one entry to the contest per year.

The winner in each genre receives a $1,000 prize, and the winning story, essay, and poems will be published in the Winter 2012-13 issue of Ploughshares.

The deadline is April 2, 2012. Get all the details here.

Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Creative Writing Competition

This is a prestigious prize and again, although there is a significant entry fee for each category, there are also substantial prizes. In addition to cash prizes, winning writers are required to attend the awards ceremony and will have their transportation (within the continental USA) and hotel accommodation paid for. There are seven categories:

• Novel  - Prize $7,500. Entry fee $40 for novels under 100,000 words, $75 for novels up to 175,000 words, $125 for novels over 175,000 words and $200 for novels over 225,000 words.
• Novella – Prize $2,500. Entry fee $35.
• Novel-in-progress  -Prize $2,000. Limit 12,500 words and a one-page synopsis. Entry fee $35.
• Short Story – Prize $1,500. Fiction no more than 10,000 words. Entry fee $30.
• Essay – Prize $1,000. Limit 2,500 words. Entry fee $30.
• Poetry – Prize $750. Limit 750 words. Entry fee $25.
• Short story by a high school student  – Prize $750 for student and $250 for sponsor teacher. Limit 5,000 words. Entry fee $10 (paid by school or teacher).

The deadline is May 1, 2012. Get the details here.

When entering writing contests always read the contest rules and submissions guidelines carefully and follow all rules and guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your entry being disqualified, even after it’s been picked as a winner (if for example you’ve entered it in the wrong age group or you live in a country ineligible to enter the contest).

Go ahead and check out these contests. If you have any success, I’d love to hear about it. You can email me or leave a comment below.

You might want to give yourself the edge by checking out John Reid’s book Write Ways to Win Writing Contests .  You can get the Kindle edition for just $2.99.

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